A cough can be rather annoying, especially when it keeps you up at night, but you can usually take comfort from knowing that it tends to run its course rather quickly and you’ll be back to normal in no time. Unfortunately, a new virus is going around that is turning what is normally a week-long nuisance into a month-long nightmare – and speculation abounds regarding its origin.

Physicians around the nation are reporting a spike in cases of people suffering from a very unusual cough. It’s caused by a virus and it’s lasting anywhere from four to six weeks – and in some cases, even longer.

One doctor, Texas Health Dallas’s Dr. Gary Gross, says he has been seeing at least a patient a day suffering from the virus, and he lamented the fact that it lasts so long without seeming to get better.

Dr. Gross told CBS DFW that the virus has no quick fix. Patients have no choice but to let it run its course, although some medications can help soothe the cough somewhat. Patients are advised to get plenty of sleep as well as lots of fluids.

Emergency medicine specialists in Cincinnati have warned the public about the virus, which they say has caused a surge in patients presenting with upper respiratory symptoms such as a cough, congestion, and shortness of breath.

Bethesda North Hospital’s Dr. Kenneth Patton describes the difficulties patients with the virus experience in breathing, saying: “They are retracting, their ribs are doing a lot of work. You can see their neck muscles, you can really see that they are having a hard time breathing.”